New Dance Studios Make Debut
April 30, 2009
Posted: April 30, 2009
In the newly completed addition to Kendall Sports and Dance Complex, piano music has replaced the sounds of hammers and power tools, and students’ shoes and boots have replaced construction debris outside the studio doors. Although construction work is still being done on the renovation of the studio theatre, the two new dance studios opened for “business” on March 23.
Dance professor Terese Freedman is thrilled with the new spaces. “They’re beautiful. Huge windows overlook the water and the trees. When the windows are open you can hear the waterfall from Upper Lake.” The studios have wall-to-wall mirrors and plasma screens for DVD viewing. Freedman is also pleased with the sprung floors, which she explained are a necessity for a dance studio, with rubber cushioning between the surface and the solid floor beneath.
The new construction consolidates the dance studios and studio theatre into one area on the south side of Kendall. The new entrance opens onto a wide hallway and box office with storage space. Two new doorways have been added to the adjoining Streeter Lounge, providing a generous reception area for dance and athletic events. The new space also contains a fully mediated classroom for dance and physical education.
The studios are slightly larger than the former ones, where a new fitness center is now under construction. Freedman said, “The fitness center will be beautiful, and provide much needed additional square footage and upgraded exercises equipment for the College.“
Freedman expressed special thanks to President Creighton for helping to bring the project from the drawing board to reality. “She is really a big supporter of the dance program and we’re truly grateful to her.”
The soon-to-be completed dance studio theatre has many features to facilitate and enhance viewing, performance, and teaching. It seats approximately 200 in comfortable, cushioned, raked seats. The 50-foot skylight, which runs across the center of the ceiling, affords plenty of natural light, and it is equipped with automatic black shades that can be drawn when darkness is needed. The theatre has “state-of-the-art, dimmer per circuit” lighting, and the sound and lighting booths are directly upstairs. “This very helpful when you need quick and easy access to the sound and lighting equipment for composition courses and student projects,” said Freedman.
The theatre will open officially next November with the Mount Holyoke Faculty Dance Concert. The event will feature a restaging of world-renowned Mark Morris’s Gloria, with live music by choral singers from Mount Holyoke and the Five College Early Music Collegium, under the direction of Bob Eisenstein.
While there are still a few kinks to work out, and many boxes to move and unpack, Freedman and her dance department colleagues couldn’t be happier. “Although it has been a rough and disruptive year for the department,” said Freedman, “we can see the renovated and upgraded light at the end of the tunnel.”
The $7.65 million Kendall Sports and Dance Complex renovation is a priority of the current $300 million Campaign for Mount Holyoke. Other campaign projects also supported by generous alumnae and friends include the new outdoor track and field and 175-bed residence hall located in the southern tip of campus, next to Pratt Hall. Both were dedicated in fall 2008.
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